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Portrait of a Lady on Fire Cast & Crew Protest Roman Polanski Win

'Portrait of a Lady on Fire' Cast & Crew Protest Roman Polanski Win

'Portrait of a Lady on Fire' Cast & Crew Protest Roman Polanski Win

The actresses and director left an awards ceremony after his win was announced.

rachelkiley

If you didn’t already have enough reasons to love the women of the critically acclaimed French lesbian drama Portrait of a Lady on Fire, they’ve just given us another fantastic reason to support them.

Controversial director Roman Polanski — who was charged with rape in 1977, ultimately pled guilty to unlawful sex with a minor, and subsequently fled the United States so as to avoid any actual consequences — won the award for Best Director at France’s César Awards on Friday. His nomination alone was protested outside of the award ceremony, prompting Polanski to be a no-show at the awards.

But when he won, Portrait of a Lady on Fire stars Adèle Haenel and Noemie Merlant, along with director Céline Sciamma, were among those who took the protest inside, walking out of the auditorium directly following the announcement.

And if it wasn’t perfectly clear that their abrupt departure was a protest of Polanski and French cinema’s refusal to hold him accountable for his crimes, another video shows Haenel angrily calling out “Brava, pedophilia!” as she and Sciamma make their way through the lobby as they leave.

While these women were certainly not the only ones who left the ceremony in protest of Polanski’s win, too many people stayed, showing exactly how easy it is for a convicted sexual predator to continue having not only a public career, but a celebrated one. As such, the bravery of those who made their positions on his inclusion known has been applauded online.

 

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Rachel Kiley

Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.

Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.